Triumph news

THE GUARDIAN

Seventy-five unofficial strikers at the Triumph car plant at Liverpool , who stopped work last week and made a total of 11,500 other workers idle, agreed yesterday to return to work. The resumption , however, will not take place until Monday by which time the production losses at the company's plants on Merseyside and in Coventry will have amounted to more than £3.5 millions.

The strikers , jig operators at the Liverpool factory, walked out on Tuesday last week over a disagreement about increased bonus pay. The entire production force of 2,500 was laid off because they could not continue with their work, and the supply of car bodies to the Coventry factory was halted. Workers at the Coventry factory however, refused to operate a rota system of lay-offs, and 9,000 walked out on strike.

The company has been losing production of 500 cars a day at Coventry and 300 a day at Liverpool.

At a strike meeting yesterday, attended by 50 of the 73 jig operators , shop stewards said they felt they could achieve an improved bonus pay offer , but that the management would not negotiate while the stoppage continued. On a vote for a return to work to allow talks to continue on the men's claim, only half a dozen opposed the stewards recomendation.